A new law could make Mexico’s horrific drug war even deadlier

The militarisation of Mexico’s streets has brought increased violence and human rights abuses.

“Don Chelo,” a key figure in Mexico’s powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel, had only been out of prison for 10 days when marines raided his ranch on the outskirts of Guadalajara early Monday morning.

Armed with assault rifles, he and a companion resisted fiercely, killing one marine before images of their own lifeless bodies were plastered across social media. They were the latest casualties in the seemingly endless drug war that claimed more lives than the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan last year.

When the final body counts are tallied, 2017 will almost certainly go down as the most violent year in Mexico’s modern history after registering 23,698 homicides from January through October.

Unsure how to stop the killing, Mexico’s government is returning to a well-worn strategy: brute force. The government is poised to pass a bill that would put even more power behind its armed forces in their war against organized crime, but security experts aren’t convinced it’ll change the country’s bloody course, and fear that the formal militarization of Mexico’s streets will only invite more bloodshed, illegal surveillance, and human rights abuses.